Dublin: Tea Cups and Prison Cells

There’s nothing like watching a destination grab first-time visitors’ hearts, especially when that place is Dublin and the visitors are your own daughters and your mother. Of course, it helped that we arrived at the right hotel, the Fitzwilliam Hotel Dublin.

We pulled up, the girls admiring the subtle violet light outlining the hotel’s entrance, my mother gazing at the verdant green grass of 17th-century St. Stephen’s Green just across the street. It was the perfect paradox of cool juxtaposed with historic. That epitomizes Dublin, a city that after a thousand years crackles with 21st century energy despite Ireland’s tough economic times. Tough times, after all, are something both Ireland and Dublin understand all too well.

A half-block from the Fitzwilliam is Grafton Street, a pedestrian shopping street lined with fashion-packed display windows that my 16-year-old absolutely loved. On every corner there were musicians, mimes or puppeteers – all of which my 10-year-old adored. And we weren’t the only ones enjoying the scene, since the street was jammed with people.

After dinner that evening my 16-year-old and I followed the directions that Sean, our youthful concierge at the Fitzwilliam, had given to the Temple Bar neighborhood. We walked through the 16-century archway that leads into Trinity College as part the very wide net my 16-year-old is casting for her college search.

The entryway was raggedly papered with all the announcements and flyers you’d see at any campus -- among the clubs and activities at Trinity that appealed to my daughter were an equestrian team (naturally) and a surfing club. We walked the cobblestones of Trinity’s Parliament Square and listened to our student guide talk about the histories and rivalries of Trinity.

We admired the college’s grand old buildings and sighed over the occasional 1970s architectural atrocity. And then, as we emerged from the library after our obligatory visit to see the Book of Kells, my 16-year-old said, “I really like it here.” “Uh-oh,” I thought.

Just around the corner from Trinity College we found a store that any retailer on a quest for a great brand to introduce to the U.S. should investigate. It’s called Avoca and it has everything from Fair Trade office supplies to historic tea cups. All four of us could have spent days shopping there. After that my younger daughter accompanied my mother to St. Stephens, where my mother had made friends with one of the park’s gardeners.

Meanwhile, my older daughter and I discovered once again how travel can catapult you through centuries and the emotions in the space of just a few blocks. We dutifully toured Christ Church and then made it to our main destination of the day -- Kilmainham Gaol. A century-and-a-half ago (about the time one set of my ancestors left Ireland) this is where the destitute, including children as young as six, were imprisoned for the crime of being poor.

What makes Kilmainham so compelling, however, is that it was the stage for several pivotal moments in Irish history. Perhaps most dramatic, we found ourselves standing on the spot where 14 members of the 1916 Irish Rising were executed, turning the tide of public opinion against the British. Subsequently, divisions ripped through the ranks of Irish freedom fighters, and in the Civil War that followed, from 1922 to 1924, the Free State government executed Republicans inside Kilmainham’s thick walls.

Walking the prison’s halls and peering into its cells while hearing about the people imprisoned there and the lives they led made for an incredible tour. My daughter had thought that 50 minutes sounded like a long tour, but she couldn’t believe that it was over when it was. One way or another, she’ll be back -- and so will I!

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